Posts tagged with "bank holidays"

Valborgsmässoafton tonight, May Day tomorrow

Posted by Gabriel 1 Comment
Apr 30 2010

This image of a bonfire typical on Valborg is taken by Hans Svensson for www.imagebank.sweden.se

So, let’s all light big fires and get drunk. I love Sweden. This is one of those Swedish holidays which is kind of funny. It derives from a number of different pagan spring customs (traditioner). It’s also celebrated in other countries like Germany and Estonia for example.

Students will party hard, with their white student caps. In Uppsala it will be mayhem. I read today that more bicycles will get stolen tonight than any other day during the year….so lock em up.

Tomorrow, of course is May 1….the worker’s day. Kind of funny. I overheard a colleague today say she didn’t celebrate May Day (Första Maj) because she wasn’t a Socialist….I didn’t know you had to be a socialist to celebrate May Day:-)

In the newspaper there was also a map of where not to drive. Places were marked where large parades (parad) were going to be held. I think you can support workers even though you’re not a socialist (socialist). So happy May Day.

So here’s to burning some fires (eld, bål), the midnight oil and supporting (stödja) workers (arbetare)!

Sweden’s National Day – June 6th

Posted by Transparent Language 2 Comments
Jun 3 2009

I’m really tired of all this grammar we’ve been talking about lately. I know we still need to cover a few things regarding past participles, but I’m also sure those buggers must be giving you nightmares by now. So let’s take a little break from grammar this week, shall we?

We have a very fun week coming up in Sweden. Well, it could have been even more fun, but unfortunately the National Day falls on a Saturday this year. Meh, like it’s going to stop us from taking this Friday off too, right?

And on Sunday there’s the election to the European Parliament. Sadly, most people I know have no intention of voting. Personally, I think that’s just wrong. Because a couple of months down the road the same people will be complaining about their European representatives.

But, I wanted to talk about the National Day today. The election can wait.

National Day of Sweden, or the Swedish Flag’s Day (Sveriges nationaldag or svenska flaggans dag) is a national holiday observed in Sweden on June 6th every year. And while it had been observed, more or less, since 1910, the day itself was made a bank holiday only in 2005.

You see, before then it was Annandag Pingst (Pentecost Monday) that was a bank holiday. But on December 14th, 2004 the government decided that enough was enough. People should work on Mondays. And voila, the National Day Holiday was born. The thinking behind it was that June 6th was going to fall on a Saturday or Sunday once in a while thus effectively limiting the number of days off. This of course upset certain unions and many people.

But come June 6th 2009 and those people realized that nobody’s going to stop them from taking the Friday before off too and having a long weekend anyway. One way or another, the delicate balance of the days off has to be preserved, right?

So, do you have any special plans for this weekend? And if you are in Europe, are you going to vote on Sunday?

Back to the Top